The Starom
by Mayenn
Summary: Netto, Enzan, and Meiru are the victims of a experiment in the virtual realm. Please review!


_The Stardom_

by May

**Very first ficcie, it's a Rockman one, and doesn't have much connection to either Axess to Stream - unless I decide otherwise later. It would be kind to excuse the very bland title and bad summary. Hopefully, you'll read the whole thing through. Please review!**

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Rockman.EXE.

**Note**: In case you were wondering, there's absolutely no romance here other than heavy friendship, and perhaps a very small crush or two. Hope that's not a disappoint.

-

"You got the little girl?"

"Yessir," the hooded figure mocked a salute to the first one. Yaito Ayano-Kouji was tucked under his left arm securely, sound asleep. His right hand dropped to his side. "Let me guess. You're planning to give her back for a good ransom from her father."

"No, way better," the first person, known as Hoto, replied, smiling gravely, and showing snow white teeth. "Of course, I'll need your help. How much?"

"Four hundred," the other grunted.

He grinned. "That's reasonable. If you want your four hundred, you're going to have to follow my instructions. Now listen up. Bring the brat to that empty grey building near our dear little Yaito's home and attract as much attention as possible -"

"Are you out of your mind, man!? There is no way I'm gonna do that. You can -"

"A thousand."

"What?"

"I said, I'll pay you a thousand," Hoto repeated calmly. "You ready to listen?" Before the other man could reply, he said, "Good. Now, where was I? Oh, yes. Bring her to the grey building. Everything's already set up there, all you have to do is push the first three people that see you in there. It really doesn't matter who. Oh yes, and be sure to give them this in any way you want." He held up a small silver key. "Then leave. And don't do anything else, or you'll find yourself in quite a fix," he smiled once again, evenly.

"For a thousand?"

"For a thousand. If I feel especially pleased, you could get a thousand and five hundred. Pretty good deal, no?"

"Yer tricking me."

"I'm not," Hoto held up the thick wad of bills, took a few of them, and handed them over. "One hundred. Do what I just you, and you'll get the rest. Fair enough?"

The second figure grunted, yet again. "You win. I'll meet you here again when I'm done?"

"Sure," he laughed rather insanely. "Yes, whatever you want. I'm hoping to see you here later. And remember, don't wander too far!"

-

Meiru Sakurai really didn't know how to react when it announced her best friend Yaito had been kidnapped. Then she got angry with those stupid people Yaito's father had hired to find her for not finding Yaito yet. Then she was angry with Yaito's father for hiring them in the first place. Then she was angry with Yaito for getting kidnapped. Then she was angry with herself for letting it happen.

The redhead wasn't able to restrain herself when a strange man showed up at a nearby place and claimed to have Yaito. She knew it wasn't safe; that was why she had asked her neighbor and friend, Netto Hikari, to go with her, even though Netto wasn't really the most reliable person.

"Its a trick," he repeated over and over again, but agreed go with her.

The man had gathered up quite a crowd, and the two had to go through much struggling and pushing to get to the front. Meiru was first to speak.

"Hey you, there! Give us back Yaito-chan!"

"My big brother can beat you up!" cried Netto, though this big brother had a huge disadvantage, being fabricated and all.

_The kids are weak and defensless,_ the stranger thought. _The guy never told me what kind of people I should push in. _He pulled the two into the door of the building, then noticed a rather familiar head of white and black. _The vice president of IPC, I can make big bucks by kidnapping that kid! _The money hungry man reached out, and grabbed the shocked boy and pulled him in also. Almost forgetting the silver key, he pulled it out of his pocket and thrust it after the three children. He swung the locked door shut after them. Now how could he get out of the mess? He could hear the police sirens in a distance...

-

Enzan Ijuuin (1) was angry. Really angry.

It was entirely his father's fault. IPC had been a huge business deal with this girl Ayano-Kouji's father's company, Gapcom. The old man was stubborn, and though Gapcom had canceled it due to Yaito's kidnapping, still wanted to complete it. Which was why he had dragged his son to the big commotion, hoping to save the stupid little girl and then resume the deal.

And THAT was why he had ended up locked in a strange cement room with two other kids One of them, a female, was okay since she was practically shivering with fear, sitting in a corner of the room. The other one, the male that went by the name Netto Hikari, was another story.

"Oh! So you're Enzan from that IPC commercial! I would've never expected to see you here, in person, in this really weird tower thing that I really want to get out of. Do you? Are you as rich as Yaito-chan?"

"Shut. _Up_!"

"Well, you're in a great mood," the girl had stood up and stood alongside with Netto. "Netto obviously knows who you are, but I hardly recongnize you. My name's Meiru Sakurai. And you're Enzan Ijuuin." She held out her hand.

Enzan shook it, and put on a grim smile, but when Netto held his hand out as well, he simply backed away and turned to a dull cement wall, looking for somewhere other than the dirty ground, to sit. It was while he was doing so when he spotted a piece of silver metal on the floor.

At first he thought it was a bomb, and was quick to herd Meiru Sakurai and Netto Hikari as far away from it as possible. Then, when they leaned toward it to take a better and safe look, Netto exclaimed, "Its a key! There's no way it can't unlock that door." He pointed toward the small door at the end of the room, opposite from the one they had entered in.

"He's right!" Meiru cried, excited.

"Wait, wait!" The two froze and looked over at Enzan. "Don't rejoice too quickly! That can be dangerous. You'll never know what's on the other side of that door."

Meiru hesitated. Enzan was right. Who would captivate them in a room, and then throw them a key leading out of it as well? "Netto, I'm not too sure. Ijuuin-san's right, this is far too dangerous. How could have the key have ended up on the ground here anyways?" A new thought struck her. "It might not even be the right key!"

"It is," Netto retorted. "I can prove it to you." The brunette snatched the key and plunged it into the keyhole of the door.

"Wait!" cried Meiru at Enzan at the same time; it was no use. There was a small click, the doorknob was twisted, and the door had opened. A green fog began filling the area.

"How horrible," Hoto grinned in a grisly manner. "It seems that the poor man got arrested. Hmm, but little Yaito-chan seems to still be in our hold. How could that be?"

A few hooded and dark figures were standing silently across from him, one of them holding the still unconscious Yaito.

"Well, let's see if he did his work, shall we. Is this not exciting?" Hoto was still smirking. Taking out a laptop, he typed furiously for a few minutes, then paused angrily. "Kids! They're nothing but kids!"

His 'companions' were smart to remain silent.

"They've already opened the door." Muttering darkly to himself, Hoto typed in a few commands, then stopped, regaining his grin. "Does this matter? Do you guys think this really matters? Hmm, the kids are naive; I think they'd make a great target. Oh, and they've already opened the door. Aren't they clever?"

The others were nodding, their heads still bent low.

"I'm guiding them to the virtual world right now. Perhaps they'll be able to make it to the Stardom," he tutted, rubbing his bare chin. "It's time to take action. Are you guys ready?"

There was no escaping now. His followers glanced at each other and nodded.

"Whatever you do, don't breath!" shouted Enzan over the others' panicking.

"How can you _not breath_?" Netto yelled back, holding a hand over his nose, and the other over his mouth.

The three were huddled together, differences forgotten, trying desperately to get away from the strange substance. Ice-cold water was also rushing at their feet.

Netto was first to slump to the floor, causing Meiru the shriek with terror. Enzan had a hard time calming her down, and soon, she too had lost consciousness. Enzan didn't want to admit he was feeling very sleepy and nauseous too. _My dad's really is going to kill me for this. _When he finally gave in, the water was up to his waist. But that didn't really matter.

The trio were pulled into the room – when they were gone, the door shut and locked again. The water and fog were soon drained of; the key would be picked up later. There was absolutely no sign that three captive kids had been held in the building at all.

-

When Yaito Ayano-Kouji woke up, she felt horribly sick, and her head ached like crazy. She coughed for a while, and then scanned her surroundings. All she saw was white. She was in an empty, white room.

She didn't remember entering this room. Where was she before she had passed out? Yaito wracked her head. She was at home. Feeling a little homesick, she remembered waiting for the limo to pick her up at school. Then she remembered being hit very hard on the back of the head.

_I've been kidnapped_, she thought, horrified. _I'm being held in here and if my parents don't pay up, I'll have to stay here forever._ But they would, of course, shelf out all of their money to have their little darling back, right?

Yaito had never truly been kidnapped before. There had been many attempts; the longest time she had been held away from her family was for twelve hours. That had been quite some time ago.

_Everyone's looking for me_, she thought. _My daddy, and Meiru-chan too. And she would've gotten Netto-kun to come with her. I'm safe, I think._

She wasn't used to sleeping on the hard floor. Yaito shifted around uncomfortably, hoping that her kidnappers had been kind enough to leave her a small blanket or two. There was absolutely no sign of anything soft.

Sighing, she crawled to a warm spot, scraping her knee in the process. She lay down, tucking her hands behind her head. It wasn't long before Yaito was sound asleep.

-

Meiru groaned loudly as she got up. She actually felt okay. She recalled trying to save Yaito-chan, then being stuck in that boring room with Netto and Enzan Ijuuin. _Netto opened that stupid door_, she thought crossly. _I'll kill him for that later_.

She turned her head around, looking for her companions, only to feel something strange move near the top of her head. Frowning, she reached over to touch her hair, but felt only a hard surface of a helmet. What? Meiru looked down at her hands. They were covered in pink gloves. She let out a frightened squeal, and then studied what she was wearing carefully. (2)

She was wearing some strange pink suit, though it didn't look very ugly at all. Black leggings, pink helmet, gloves, and dress, with a strange yellow pair of …_antennas?_ Meiru thought, fingering them. Her hair flowed out of the helmet, and was tied with a green ribbon. The outfit actually felt comfortable, and she felt rather pretty in it.

Suddenly remembering who she came here (wherever that was) with, she looked around. She was in a strange forest-like area, and Netto and Ijuuin-kun were nowhere to be seen. But…

She squealed once again. Two strangers with strange outfits that looked a tiny bit like her own were lying at her feet. There was no way… Meiru stared down at them, bewildered.

Netto was in blue. And yellow. And green. Enzan was in red. And black. And white. What they were wearing seemed to be more of armor than hers. It was until then she realized they all had different symbols on their set of clothes.

She crouched down, and shook the pair of them, whispering urgently. "Wake up! You guys!"

The two boys didn't come to for a long time. Finally, Enzan sat up with a light yawn. He reached over to rub his eyes, when his hand, instead, hit the pair of shades. He, too, gave a start when seeing what he was wearing, but Meiru was able to feebly explain to him what had happened. Netto followed closely, and he was 'filled in' also.

"I like blue," he said in a small voice.

"So what do we do now?" asked Meiru, feeling rather empty. They hadn't been able to save Yaito; the events seemed like they had took place at least a year ago.

The other two were not given a chance to reply; the loud shot had soared through the air. Frantically, the three stood up easily, and looked around to see what was the source of sound. Enzan was first to spot it. A white globe of energy was traveling at a fast speed toward them.

"Look out!" he shouted, as the three stared, terrified, at the sphere that was soon to hit them.

-

**-san**: a suffix; formal

**-kun**: a suffix; usually used for boys

**-chan**: a suffix; usually used for someone you know extremely well; used for small girls and boys often

1: I'm more used to 'Ijuuin Enzan' Not sure about you.

2: I was sorry to get rid of our dear Rock, Blues, and Roll. Haha, perhaps they can come back in a later chapter – if there is one.

-

**I'm really hoping for some good feedback to this. Constructive criticism is welcome, I'm hoping that you flamers could hold back a bit …? Please review, I'm begging you!**


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